


The one with the fifty daughters

by HighlyExplosiveContent



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Disney Cartoons (Classic), Hercules (1997)
Genre: F/M, Hercules needs an adult right now, Multi, phil needs a break, the story of thespius' fifty daughters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 07:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighlyExplosiveContent/pseuds/HighlyExplosiveContent
Summary: Phil hoped that His pupil could manage one mission on his own.Hercules wanted to show Phil that he could handle a badly tempered lion without his coach's help.King Thespius was a hurdle that neither man nor satyr had expected.In which I wanted to write a short and funny one-shot, which turned out both longer and more serious than I had originally planned- yet, here we are.





	The one with the fifty daughters

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings-ish and notes at the end
> 
> *greek myth spoilers*
> 
> This basically sprung from my mind after reading a post that went along the lines of, 
> 
> "Imagine the Disney version of Hercules finding out that the king wants him to sleep with his fifty daughters so he can have grandkids, like in the original myth xD " And I just really wanted to write about him telling Phil that he accidentally agreed to it.

Thespiae, Boeotia, Ancient Greece

 

Phil massaged his temples, eyes screwed up as he felt the beginnings of a massive headache coming on. He’d been travelling for an hour to Thespiae, fever and sore throat be damned. He had agreed to let the kid go alone for once, but now he knew it had been a bad idea.

‘Tell me again how this happened,” he asked, praying to the gods that he’d misheard him. Hercules was sitting down on a stone bench outside the city walls, hands covering his face. The young man could not bear to look his trainer in the eye, knowing the disappointment would be written across his features.

 

\--

 

**Four hours earlier**

 

Hercules imagined Phil’s exasperated voice in his head when he landed in the city of Thespiae. Shortly before taking off to fight the fearsome giant lion, he’d received a scroll from a messenger of King Thespius, inviting him to dinner that evening. Phil usually didn’t let him go anywhere without him by his side. While Hercules had no problems knocking out giant bears and monsters, his talents with the public eye left much to be desired. It took one mishap, involving a tribe of amazons and a cart full of manure – the less it’s talked about, the better - for Phil to conclude that Herc shouldn’t be allowed to go alone on such meetings.

At first, Phil had refused to let Hercules go to Thespiae on his own, saying the people could deal with a giant lion until he was well enough to come along, but Herc had begged until Phil had relented, making him promise that he’d stick to what he knew, namely to kill beasts and save civilians. That meant no PR stunts, no appearances in markets and malls, and absolutely no talking of politics. It had grated on Hercules’ nerves that the satyr didn’t trust him on his own.

When Hercules had received the invitation from King Thespius, he hadn’t really figured out the polite way to decline an offer from a king. Ignorant though he was of the unspoken rules among powerful people, he wasn’t an idiot. Phil had explained many times how even the wrong length or color of one’s toga could completely ruin a man’s reputation and influence. Though he failed to see how any minor misstep of his could disrupt his own line of work– what were the people in power gonna do? Ask him to stop helping people?

Herc felt a slight elevation to his pulse when he stepped into the palace garden. While guilt for disobeying Phil was present, it was overruled by the excitement of doing things on his own. Speaking to a King. As a professional hero. Like a proper adult. He’d never heard anything negative of the King, other than the man’s enjoyment of many lovers, beside his own wife, Megamede. Hercules wasn’t one to judge, but he could barely get his head around the idea of having just one lover, and even that was a terrifying thought.

 

His musings were cut short as he spotted two guards standing outside the entrance to the palace. They didn’t even raise their spears and shields as he approached. Obviously his reputation preceeded him, as they made no effort to stop him. Instead, they silently bowed in welcome, avoiding his eyes and showed him to their master’s throne room. Once inside though they were both quite talkative, one of them asking him to sign an autograph, ‘for my daughter, of course’.

All around the premise, they passed several people, most of whom were young women. Usually there’d be a few servants around in palaces, maybe the wife or a child running around the premise. Hercules was impressed with how much life all these people brought into the palace – The fabric-covered marble walls contained much more life than his own quiet villa.

King Thespius sat by a longtable. He was older than Hercules had expected, greying hair and laugh lines. The man looked up from the scroll he was reading and gave him a slow look over, seemingly pleased with what he saw. This, in hindsight, should have been the first warning sign, but Hercules had become accustomed to lusting fans’ wandering eyes – both male and female - and didn’t put much thought into it. He ran through a quick checklist in his head of how Phil had taught him to act in front of royalty. His salute and bow were abrupted however, as the King gave out a hearty laugh and strode over to him.

‘Hercules, my man!’ he boomed, voice dark and regal. ‘Please, there’s no need for such politeness! Any guest of mine is my equal inside these walls. Thank you for coming so quickly,’ he put an arm around the hero’s shoulders and guided him to the longtable. He gestured for him to sit down on the bench beside him, while he positioned himself at the end of the table. These benches were made for much shorter people than Herc, and he squirmed in his seat to find a comfortable position that didn’t make him look like an overgrown kid.

Thespius leaned back against his chair and called a name – one of the guards that had escorted him, Herc noted – and mumbled something into the guard’s ear. The guard nodded and turned swiftly, exiting the room.

‘So…’ Thespius sighed. ‘You are quite the popular topic on people’s lips nowadays. The stories of your achievements have even reached us here.’ He poured wine into a goblet, took a sip and handed it to Hercules, winking. Hercules accepted the goblet and thanked him, wondering if the king had many visitors that worried about receiving poisoned wine.

‘I’m just doing what I can to help other people, that’s all,’ He shrugged, hoping that he looked modest, but heroic. Despite his knees almost reaching the same height as his chest on these low benches.

‘And do you get any… compensation for your dutiful work?’ the King continued. Herc had to think about that for a second. Phil always covered that part for him, though he assumed the real money came from appearances in sculptures and painted vases, openings of new buildings and such.

‘Well I-I get the satisfaction of knowing innocent people are safe, though I do get the occasional payment,’ he answered truthfully.

Thespius was about to continue but was interrupted mid-sentence as the doors opened one again and one by one, guards as well as the young women he’d seen before strode in, standing by the back of the room. Some of them were probably around Herc’s own age. This should have been his second warning, though the wine had loosened his nerves a bit. Thespius rose from his seat and went up to one of the older women. He put his hand on her shoulder and turned again to Hercules,

‘These beautiful young girls are my daughters!’ he declared, a huge grin on his face. ‘My beautiful, talented, crafty daughters. Not all are here right now, they do occasionally venture out to town, but when we’re all together there’s about fifty of them.’ All of the women either snickered or rolled their eyes at their father, and a few of them were whispering in each other’s ears, stealing glances at Herc and giggling.

 

He realized his mouth was hanging open. How did Thespius even… Were they all of different mothers? How did they not find that the least bit strange?

‘I know what you’re thinking, but it’s actually a mutual agreement between me and Megamede. We’ll let our eyes – and desires – wander, as long as our love for each other and our partnership is the strongest. She also became weary of birthing more children. As I understand it can be a rather painful experience. This is my oldest, daughter of my wife. Prokris, her name is.’

'Umm' Hercules mumbled. What was he supposed to say here? Congratulations?

'Our father has been yearning for us to have our own families,' the oldest, Prokris, said. she took a few steps forward and looked between Hercules and Thespius. 'Not that he's been nagging on us, but I know how much both he and Mother long for grandchildren. Unfortunately, the prospects of finding any prince worthy of any of us is, apparantly next to impossible.' At the last few words she threw her father an amused look. She obviously didn't think this as strange as Hercules did.

‘I-I’m sorry to hear that,’ Herc said, still reeling at the idea of having fifty daughters. How could he even remember all their names? _Did he_ remember their names, or did he just try to address them directly—

‘Ah, but then-!’ Thespius exclaimed, with a joyous expression on his face, ‘as I started to lose hope for my dear daughters, the mighty hero Hercules shows up at our doorstep, the son of Zeus himself, the savior of Greece, and he’s come to slay the lion that’s been killing and stealing food from us for a year,’ Herc wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. ‘So here you come into my very own halls! And you don’t even expect rewards for your heroism, but don’t you worry! In house Thespius we always show our gratefulness. So once you’ve slain the beast, you’re welcome back to stay here for as long as it takes –’

Herc gulped.

‘Why?’ He asked, feeling his voice crack. The conversation sobered him up.

‘Like I said,’ Thespius smiled mischievously, ‘I’ve always wanted grandchildren, and what would be better than fifty grandchildren, fathered by the greatest hero Greece has ever seen!?’ At this, Thespius beamed at him, as if this was the best piece of news he'd ever heard.

Herc's ears were ringing. The palms of his hands were cold and sweaty. Had he just heard correctly? Did he mean… With fifty women? Fathered by him? Mortified, he felt a terrible blush spreading across his face.

‘So what do you say, hmm? Mighty Hercules…’ He chuckled, grabbing a seat again and gesturing for his daughters to take their places at the table. They watched Hercules curiously, talking amongst each other and, like their father, eyed him up and down. ‘Will you…. Accompany us here, in this palace, for the next fifty days? Gives you a lot of time to find and hunt the beast.’

The fact that the daughters seemed just as eager as their dad about the prospect of bedding the hero only made him even more discomforted. As the king awaited his answer, he went through his mind to find the best, most polite way of declining this offer, generous as it was. All that came out of his mouth was,

‘Uhhhhhhhh…’

\--

 

‘So what did ya say?’ Phil pressed on, already fearing the answer. Hercules mumbled, his words barely audible through his arms, folded around his face.

‘I said yes’

‘Wha – YES!? YOU SAID YES!?’ Phil shrieked, unable to contain the horror in his voice. ‘WHY ON ZEUS’S GREEN EARTH DID –‘

‘I PANICKED, ALL RIGHT!?’ At this Hercules threw his hands up in the air, staring at Phil with a mixture of fear and humiliation. ‘I-I thought they were going to offer me gold, or-or jewels, not…’ He stood up abruptly to pace the area, causing Phil to stumble a few steps back. ‘And I didn’t know what to say…’

‘So you thought that ‘yes’ was a logical answer!?’ Phil exclaimed.

‘I know, I know. I’ll just…’ Hercules dragged his hands across his face, forcing in a deep breath, in a desperate attempt to collect his thoughts. ‘I’ll just, get back in there and tell him I’ve changed my mind, I’m sure he’ll—’

‘Kid, are ya nuts? You can’t just return a gift like that like it’s a broken vase or an ill cow. ‘ Phil sighed. ‘ Unless ya wanna be hunted for sports by Boeotia’s best mercenaries for the next five years!’

‘Then what am I supposed to do?’ Herc’s voice cracked, the full realization hitting him as he slowly sailed down on his knees. ‘There must be a loop hole, somehow…’ Phil mused. He couldn’t even blame Herc too much, as he’d never heard of a situation like this before. The kid was a clutz, yes, and sometimes a bit clueless, but not even Phil would have truly known how to deal with this. Most other heroes would have gladly accepted Thespius’s gift, at least pretending to enjoy it, but the kid was not that kind of person…

Then he had a completely crazy idea.

What if Hercules were already married?

**Author's Note:**

> First off, because greek myths tend to a bit.... non-con/dubcon, I'm taking creative liberty here and declaring that all of the fifty daughters were more than willing in my version of this story. In my defense I'm assuming that the entire family is pretty chill and doesn't take sex very seriously. 
> 
> Also I do believe that Phil finds a way to solve the problem and that every one will be happy. And Herc won't have to sleep with any of them in the end (consent goes both ways)


End file.
